ºUnsettling loss to South Florida sends Notre Dame back to square one.

South Florida's 23-20 win over the Irish was Tulsa revisited, sans Notre Dame's very real chance to win at the end.

The Irish football program, riding the momentum of four wins to end last season, took some major steps backward Saturday.

This was a Notre Dame team that was supposed to have outgrown the goofs it committed Saturday. The Irish weren't supposed to be so fragile and vulnerable. Notre Dame doubled South Florida's offensive production, 508 yards to 254 -- but still came up empty.

Five turnovers, three in the red zone. Dayne Crist's tenure as "the man" under center lasted all of 30 minutes. Hello, Tommy Rees. Good-bye, confidence.

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David Ruffer, college football's most accurate kicker last season, misfired wide left from 30 yards in the third quarter. Big points, as it turned out.

Late hit and pass interference penalties on corner Gary Gray during the Bulls' last scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Big yards.

"This was an accumulation of mistake after mistake after mistake," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said. "It wasn't just one play. It was one mistake after the other."

A lot of respect was flushed with the loss. Heck, NBC, Notre Dame's own television network, even gave up on the Irish. After the second stadium evacuation and storm delay, NBC shifted the final 4 minutes and 21 seconds to its obscure subsidiary, Versus, so